By now, every streamer who’s taking DMCA seriously has deleted their VODs and clips. Streamers who haven’t yet taken action will likely be in for a rude awakening (especially Partners who will be the likely targets of aggressive RIAA action). But deleting OLD content is only half the battle if you continue to violate copyright law. It’s important for Twitch streamers to monitor for DMCA violations that may incidentally happen during the course of their stream.
Today, I’m going to help you set up a tool that will help you track potential DMCA violations. It’s not perfect. It doesn’t catch everything, but it’s a good, low-risk tool to give you some proactive measures.
ACRCloud to Monitor for DMCA Violations
The service is called ACRCloud.com. They have been around since 2015, and work with some known brands including the Cartoon Network, Sharp, Deezer, and Audiomack.
You’re going to want to navigate to the signup page. Here you’ll enter your name, email, and create a password. You’ll be sent a verification link to your email. Click that link and then proceed to login. On this page, you will need to enter a Country, Phone Number, and Company name to proceed. Once done, you’ll see this screen.
Now the complicated part (it’s NOT complicated!) Click on “Broadcast Monitoring”. On the dashboard that comes up, click on Broadcast Monitoring > Custom Streams.
On this page, click on Create Project. Give your project a name, select Monitor Streams on ACRCloud. In Buckets, select ACRCloud Music, then tick off all the options (Spotify, Deezer, YouTube, ISRC, UPC).
With your new project created, click on it. This will open a new dashboard with a bunch of information that all read 0 at the moment. In the top left, click Add Stream. Enter in a name (anything), and then add a link to your stream. Under the config section, select real-time monitoring. Then click confirm. You’ll now see your Stream ID and some additional information.
Now, it will be listening to your stream for any copyright music. It’s important to know that this tool WILL track music that you do have the rights to use! For example, I have a license with Epidemic Sound. Epidemic Sound music is copyright – and thus it does get discovered by this tool. BUT, I don’t need to worry because I know I have a license for it. I assume that will be true of other services like Monstercat, Pretzel Rocks, or others.
Checking for DMCA Violations
Once you have this running, stream as you normally would. Be careful not to play copyright music – this does not offer protection, only possible insight. But if you react to something on stream (a Tik Tok video, a meme, a movie trailer, even an ad) that does contain copyright music, this can give you the heads up!
Navigate back to the Custom Streams tab on the dashboard and click on Views > Results.
A new page will open with a bunch of results on it if you’ve played Copyright Music. Here is an ACTUAL screenshot of my own stream from Election Night. Most of these songs are from Epidemic Sound, and so I know I’m safe for those… HOWEVER, there is one result there that is assuredly an accidental copyright violation.
What’s great about this tool is that it tracks in real-time. The other day on stream, I tested by playing a song and within 5 seconds this had been updated to reflect that copyright song. So, any time during your stream you can monitor for DMCA violations! You can also search by time, and find the exact timecode of your stream where the problem was. After the trial, it goes to $10-13 a month.
Again, this is NOT a perfect solution. In much the same way that this tool tracks live, the music industry can issue live DMCA takedowns. But, between playing stream safe music and this, you’ll be better informed in keeping your stream copyright safe!
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